From the Principal's Desk

We are flying through the start of term 3 and are already heading into week 5 of a shorter 9-week term. The Year 12 student cohort has also started a ‘countdown’ as students enter the last 40 days of their secondary schooling before they undertake their exams. And it’s been nice during the past week to observe some longer days and some winter sunshine to give us a little spring in our step!

In this edition or our newsletter, you will be informed about our very talented students who have excelled in many endeavours over the first few weeks of semester two and will be provided with further information as to what is still to come for the remainder of the term. Our Assistant Principals and Program Leaders have acknowledged in this newsletter specific achievements and there have certainly been many students’ activities, programs, opportunities and performances that our school community should be very proud of. 

Themed weeks at WCC

Last week our Students Action groups led the whole school in our multicultural week celebrations. I would like to thank our student leaders and our school captains for the outstanding program, along with our Engagement team. I would also like to thank all of our students and staff who demonstrated a generosity of spirt as they built cultural understanding through their various performances and activities. It was a wonderful week of sharing of culture but also the building of our Wyndham Central College understanding and friendships. This year we extended our program to include or first multicultural evening event where more than 600 people attended the celebration in the school gym. We look forward to adding this to our yearly calendar as it was a huge success. 

National Science Week is being acknowledged in Australia this year between 9-17th August. This year's theme for National Science Week is 'Decoding the Universe - Exploring the unknown with nature's hidden language'. At WCC this year, our students will be engaging in some fun STEM activities and experiments during lunchtimes. Science and STEM is a focus in our college, and our students engage deeply across all domains of Science and STEM. A big thank-you to our WCC Science department for inspiring our students to love the Sciences and STEM. We hope that our parents and friends enjoyed our Science Fair on Thursday evening.  

Our themed weeks will continue next week with our yearly book week celebrations. We have many exciting activities planned for break times and during schoolwide time and we will even have a special guest joining us. Again, I would like to thank our wonderful team in our Library Resource Centre, for planning and encouraging our students to read and continuing to encourage our students to ‘read for pleasure’ each morning in WYNtime. We are looking forward to announcing the winner of our tutor bookcase competition. The school community are certainly enjoying these weeks, and we are looking forward to continuing to highlight our school events in future newsletters and on our school Instagram and Facebook page(s). 

I ask parents and carers to continue to encourage your children to be part of these school activities. We know how important it is to acknowledge and develop all children to reach their full potential and talents. A reminder that our breaktime clubs run break one and two, every day, where students can find ‘like-minded’ others who share their special interests. If a student would like to start a new club, they are encouraged to use ‘their voice’ and speak with Assistant Principal Mr Rowe or their year level leader. 

Music Camp, overseas trips and overseas visitors

Congratulations to the staff and students who participated in our college Music camp. The Camp site managers and staff were full of praise for our students but also for our WCC staff. Well done to Ms Sue Butcher and Ms Anne Vlahos and the team of music, drama and instrumental staff who supported the camp and to our terrific students for engaging in the opportunity.

I’d also like to thank Mr Ito and Mr De-Leon and their international teacher team for their leadership over the past two months. Our students were able to travel oversees to visit our sister school MITO High School during the term break and when we returned to school this term we reciprocated and hosted 25 students from our Japanese sister school. Our student buddy’s and host families were terrific, and I know – from all the tears – that both sets of students have made lifelong friends. We are currently hosting our sister school students from Spain and are planning for our students to visit Madrid in the next term break. We thank families for their support of our international programs; from hosting a student, buying a fundraising sausage at our Bunnings stall, or supporting their child to travel and experience an international school.  Stay tuned as we will be announcing our third sister school forming part of our Hindi Beacon school program. 

Futures Week

We did start our term with our pathways team led by Ms Pina Siragusano working with our years 9-12 students to provide students with the opportunities to attend our annual Pathway expo’s (now Futures expo) with over 60 different educational and pathway providers presenting to our students in the school gymnasium. We also held Tertiary events and VTAC information nights, a VCE, VCE-VM presentation (replacement of VCAL), and a study taster program for our year 10 students. We were encouraged to see families attending our subject OPEN EXPO and attend our AVID and WEB preference information sessions. The school would like to take this opportunity to thank parents who attended during this week and supported our students, your children, in selecting their pathway choices for 2026. All student selections via our Web Preferences should have been submitted and are now overdue. 

Over the next few weeks, the college will use student preferences to develop a well-rounded 2026 timetable and teaching program that caters for all students. Confirmation of entry into our specific programs e.g., AVID elective, STEM Academy, Spanish Immersion Program (SIP), Enrichment program, our Football Development Program, and our VCE-VM, will be available to families by the end of term three and all subject selection confirmations will be sent home in the first two weeks of term 4. 

Student reports and student results 

A printed copy of the Semester one report was distributed to families in the last week of term.  If parents/carers did not receive their copy, I would like to remind you that all reports are available on COMPASS via your parent/carer login. Staff are already preparing five weekly checks for our senior classes and interim term reporting for years 7-12. A reminder that this will be the last report for our year 12 cohort and we hope that parents/students found the additional interview evening held this week to be helpful. 

All students should be working on their current learning goals based on their own learning journey. Families are encouraged to support students to achieve these goals by talking about learning and importantly asking for help if needed. The College continues to enhance our learning programs and excellent classroom teaching with the extension of our afterschool homework and learning clubs, and our year 11 and 12 subject free tutoring service. In semester two we have continued with supports such as Middle Years Literacy and Numeracy program (MYLENS), Quicksmart and Enhancement literacy and numeracy support, as well as the state government funded Tutor learning Program. 

Parent/teacher interviews Term 3

Parent Teacher Student Learning Conversations are scheduled for the last Tuesday of this term with bookings opening soon. It's always a great opportunity to meet and speak with teachers to hear about how students are progressing. As always, we strongly encourage students to be part of these conversations to contribute and reflect on their learning to date and be part of setting goals moving forward.

Celebration of Success – Semester 1 Achievers Awards.  Our students have been celebrated at their year level assemblies over the last couple of weeks. Several of our students received academic achievement awards for their learning whilst others received endeavour awards for their effort and growth. Students will also be celebrated at our sub-school assemblies because we know how important it is to pause and acknowledge our students who have displayed academic excellence, outstanding attendance and leadership during semester 1. Please encourage your children to use the folders we provided to build their portfolio of achievement.

 Parent /Carer Surveys – your feedback is important to us. 

As I have mentioned many times it is extremely important that schools and parents/carer’s work together to create the best learning environment for students. Our annual parent survey link has been distributed to all families via Compass, and I once again encourage all families to please complete the online survey. The online survey is expected to only take 20 minutes to complete.

This is a great opportunity to provide feedback or suggestions for improvement and to let us know how we are doing from our parent/carer’s perspective. Please do not hesitate to call the school if you are having any difficulties in using the link or need support with the process.  

Ready to Learn

We have noticed that during the winter our pride in our uniform has slipped a bit, where our students are not wearing the appropriate school jumpers, jackets and sometimes trousers or shoes. 

It is an expectation that all students arrive at school each day in full school uniform with their equipment so that they are ‘ready to learn’, and not having to deal with the consequences of being out of uniform or being late.  

If families would like uniform support, please do not hesitate to contact the school, and speak to a member of our student services team or our Assistant Principals. The wearing of a school uniform is a matter of safety but importantly it also builds pride and belonging to the Wyndham Central College school community.

Please continue to help your children feel that they belong and are a part of our great school. 

Leanne Gagatsis -  Principal

Creating a Community of High Expectations 

Respect, Cooperation and Excellence